Traditional processes directed toward the cooking of meats have emphasized techniques for replacing lost juices by manual basting and techniques for tenderizing through physical conditioning or aging. A significant reduction in total cooking time for meat preparation, however, has yet to be successfully achieved.
Innovations in commercial processing techniques, though limited by lengthy cooking periods, have focused primarily on ways of improving traditional processes, i.e., basting and tenderizing. Marinow, U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,689 discloses a method for reducing the oozing characteristic of injected basting. Chilled meats or poultry were injected with a basting emulsion of water and mixtures of oils and fats at a temperature just above the melting point of the fats. When subjected to chilling, the emulsion temperature permitted the fats and oils to solidify before seeping out of the carcass.
Schwall, U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,063, discloses that suspension of edible fat and phosphate salt at a temperature between 80.degree. F. and 100.degree. F. may be used to facilitate the production of air bubbles in an injection suspension. The air bubbles in suspension are used to expand the poultry, increasing the meat's capacity to hold the suspension rather than to initiate precooking.
Other tenderizing processes such as Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,696, have disclosed multiple injection of a solution and a gas. The solution, including proteolytic enzymes, salts, acids, gelatin and water, is injected at a temperature of 100.degree. F. or higher followed by aging at reduced temperature. The gas is injected prior to the completion of rigor mortis either in conjunction with or after the injection of the solution.
Various flavor and moisture enhancing solutions have been developed to assist in the treatment of meats and poultry. Pooley, U.K. Pat. No. 2,030,841 discloses a process for injecting the carcass of one species with a solution of stock, or fat extract of another. The stock or fat extract, being a conductive medium for microbial activity, has been traditionally kept in a chilled environment prior to use. Pooley discloses that the extract may be pasteurized prior to injection thereby eliminating the need for chilling or preservatives. Once injected, however, Pooley discloses that the poultry is frozen.
Ellis, U.S. Pat. No. 2,687,961 discloses a process for reducing cooking shrinkage and fluid drainage by multiple injection of a solution at a temperature of 100.degree. F. to about 200.degree. F. The poultry, however, is chilled and packaged after injection and not subject to immediate cooking.
Buchanan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,709,658 likewise treats poultry flesh by hot injection prior to chilling and aging. The poultry is then subjected to either precooking by microwave, steam or by total immersion at elevated temperatures.
The prior processes for employing multiple injection or spraying of aqueous stock solutions have been directed toward either minimizing moisture and flavor loss attributable to normal cooking procedures or toward obtaining a higher quality, more tender piece of meat. Prior art processes employing injections of elevated temperature solutions have not been directed toward achieving a shorter total cooking time. In fact, prior art processes utilizing chilling and aging steps after injection have taught away from the novelty of the subject invention. Accordingly, a process which utilizes an increased internal temperature resulting from injection would be a highly desired advance in the art of cooking meat.